New presidency of the SAA

New Presidency of the SAA as of 1 May 2026

From 1 May 2026, the Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA) will be led on an interim basis for one year by Ass. Prof. Dr Madlen Kobi (University of Fribourg) as President and Prof. Dr Tobias Haller (University of Bern) as Vice-President. The members present unanimously elected them at the extraordinary general meeting on 17 April 2026. They will thus take over the leadership of Switzerland’s leading association for social anthropologists from Prof. Dr Bettina Beer (University of Lucerne).

Madlen Kobi has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Fribourg since 2022, has been a member of the Swiss Anthropological Association since 2012, and organised this year’s annual conference of the Society in Fribourg together with Dr Lena Kaufmann. In her role as President, she aims to contribute to establishing stable long-term leadership and organisational structures in collaboration with the secretariat, the commissions and the Executive Committee, and to raise the profile of social anthropology as a discipline. Madlen Kobi has a broad network in Switzerland, a resource that will facilitate her collaboration with internal and external individuals and institutions.